September 30, 2018

Gov. Brown vetoes bill to let districts give SAT or ACT as 11th grade test

Dozens of districts are offering the tests at their own expense already, because scores on SAT and ACT, not Smarter Balanced, are what matters to high school juniors.

John Fensterwald

September 6, 2018

California to add chronic absenteeism, career/college indicators to education 'dashboard'

The State Board of Education has no answer to a basic question: Should the state measure readiness for 'college and careers' or 'college or careers'?

John Fensterwald

September 4, 2018

New ‘friendlier’ look coming for California’s school dashboard

Complaints that the state education data web site was too difficult to understand led to redesigned version.

John Fensterwald

August 29, 2018

Offering the SAT instead of Smarter Balanced will open doors to college

11th graders suffering test fatigue from too many tests and SAT better positions underserved students for college, proponents say.

Christopher J. Steinhauser

August 23, 2018

Renewed push to offer SAT and ACT as California's 11th-grade test

Superintendents say free college readiness testing for all would raise SAT/ACT scores and boost college admissions. Opponents say AB 1951 would undermine the usefulness of high school testing.

John Fensterwald

August 15, 2018

California gets high grade in measuring teachers’ reading instruction skills

Linda Darling-Hammond, chair of teacher credentialing commission, calls the state assessment out of date and not a good predictor of classroom performance.

John Fensterwald

July 26, 2018

California kids who didn’t learn to read to get day in court

The lawsuit demands that the state improve reading and writing instruction in schools serving low-income students of color.

John Fensterwald

July 11, 2018

California officials confident they’ve cut deal in dispute over federal education law

State Board also votes to continue exploring a way to measure a school’s impact on student learning. Advocates say a “growth model" will be more precise than the method the state uses now.

Mikhail Zinshteyn And John Fensterwald

July 10, 2018

Pressure builds to change how California measures student progress on state tests

Student advocacy groups and academics are seeking to adopt a model other states use to calculate the impact of students’ test score growth, but state staff urge patience.

John Fensterwald And Mikhail Zinshteyn

May 9, 2018

A closer look at California’s impressive educational performance

Recent reforms are translating into improved performance, says former state schools chief.

Bill Honig

April 23, 2018

Advocates accuse Bay Area district of failing to release data on student performance

Data needed so public can have a say in how the district spends state funds

Theresa Harrington

April 17, 2018

African-American students would get extra funding under proposal before Legislature

Bill would modify the Local Control Funding Formula to add money for the lowest-performing student group; it could violate the law barring preferential treatment based on race or ethnicity.

John Fensterwald

April 9, 2018

California makes significant gain in reading on much anticipated national test

San Diego, Los Angeles and Fresno make notable growth among urban districts in the 2017 NAEP.

John Fensterwald

April 8, 2018

To compromise or not: State education board to vote on California’s amended plan for meeting federal law

The state could still seek waivers from changes that board members don’t like — but only after a plan is submitted.

John Fensterwald

April 1, 2018

More questions surface on accuracy of California school absentee data

The California Department of Education adds warnings to its website of inaccurate chronic absenteeism data.

Nico Savidge